La Perla marks 65 years in W. Valley

Eva Pompa never used recipes. Taught by her mother to cook the food of her native Chihuahua, Mexico, she used a "handful of this and a handful of that," says Eva's daughter, Joanne Pompa Sandhagen.

So when Eva's son, Joe "Butch" Pompa, wanted to quantify those recipes for the longtime family restaurant, La Perla in Glendale, he would slip a pan underneath his mother's hand and catch ingredients as they fell from her fingers.

That care is what has kept La Perla (The Pearl) one of the most popular Mexican restaurants in Glendale for 65 years. Eva's cooking and husband Joe's brilliance in kitchen design forged a partnership that introduced many Anglos to authentic Mexican fare in the 1940s.

Born in Pearce in southeastern Arizona, Joe wooed Eva at dances they attended around Clarkdale. He was 21, she was 19. By day, Joe was a copper miner in Jerome. Like many Mexican-American miners, he would later tell his children, his job took him to the bottom of the pit.

A hard worker, he took a second job as a professional boxer. But when Eva told him she wouldn't consider marriage until he quit boxing, Joe hung up his gloves and earned a degree in electronic engineering, finding work at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

Joe was in management, and when one employee said he wouldn't work for a Mexican-American, Joe punched him and put that argument to rest, Sandhagen says with a laugh.

For a while, Eva cooked only as a hobby. The couple had four children: Joanne, Joe, Sylvia and Gloria.

In 1946, when Joanne was 4, Eva and Joe decided to open a small restaurant at 5912 W. Glendale Ave.

Most Hispanics couldn't afford to dine out in those days and preferred to eat at home, Sandhagen says. But Whites made La Perla instantly successful, delighted by waitresses in colorful skirts and Mexican blouses.

"It was new, and it was fun," she says.

The menu was all Eva, a reflection of Chihuahuan specialties similar to Sonoran cuisine. The couple worked 16 hours a day to make a go of the business and gradually enlarged the space over the years.

But the kitchen Joe designed 65 years ago worked so well, Sandhagen says, that it's still the one in operation today. Their first tortilla maker stayed 30 years, and the second has been there 35 years.

Joanne's father died in 1961. Eva died in 1973. Today the younger Joe, 62, runs the restaurant, and his daughter, son and niece work there.